Why do both Zhong Nanshan and Zhang Wenhong recommend drinking milk?

As the Spring Festival approaches, the epidemic has once again become the focus of many people's attention. Due to the rebound of the epidemic in some local areas, all places are currently recommending that everyone celebrate the New Year in situ and minimize mobility. It can be said that from 2020 to now, the changes brought about by this epidemic to people are really huge. As ordinary people, when facing diseases, especially epidemics, in addition to complying with the policy of staying at home, we should try to achieve a balanced nutrition at home and exercise more so that our bodies can adjust to a better state, right?

In fact, during the epidemic last year, while preventing the epidemic, many experts also made some suggestions on everyone’s daily diet. Among them, there was one food that was very typical, and that was milk.

For example, in April 2020, Academician Zhong Nanshan mentioned: "I drink two glasses of milk every day. The nutrition of milk is very important to people's health. It can improve people's immunity and play a big role in the recovery of patients during the epidemic."

For example, Dr. Zhang Wenhong also gave a very down-to-earth suggestion: "The best prevention method is to drink more water, drink more milk, eat more eggs, get more sleep, and stay at home. These are the best medicines."

Yes, the biggest reminder of the epidemic to humans may be health, because an important factor related to severe cases of the epidemic is low immunity and underlying diseases. So, although 2020 has passed, it has to be said that health is already everyone’s biggest and most urgent wish. . .

A few days ago, we encountered the biggest cold wave this year, and temperatures continued to drop in many places, which actually had an adverse impact on epidemic prevention.

Taking SARS, which is the closest to COVID-19, as an example, when SARS was first studied, it was found that there was a certain relationship between the daily temperature difference and the incidence of SARS. If there was a drastic temperature fluctuation within a single day, that is, the daily temperature difference was large, then the number of SARS cases would increase [1].

The reason is essentially immunity.

Immunity: One of the core factors in coping with COVID-19

The virus is there, but infection and disease mainly depend on the body's own immunity.

When meteorological conditions change dramatically, the human body will experience many physiological disorders and maladaptive symptoms, which will reduce the body's resistance to disease and make it more vulnerable to attack. It can be said that immunity is an important coping strategy for viruses.

For example, this picture, which many people may have seen, is a scientific study on the mechanism of action of current drugs[2].

The drugs in it include those that act on viral invasion, those that act on viral replication, as well as those that target transcription and packaging.

However, no matter what kind of drug, it only blocks the virus in the past, such as preventing the virus from replicating and destroying the virus's coating, but the virus itself is not killed. It is the immune system that really kills the virus.

Just like the police control the criminals, and then need to wait for the final court trial to complete the handling of the criminals. The virus-infected cells are eventually either cleared by cellular molecules or dissolved and reconstructed by immune cells (here is a brief mention, the reason why AIDS is difficult to treat is that AIDS attacks the immune system).

Therefore, the key to fighting viruses is to improve immunity.

So, how to improve immunity?

First, we must first clarify what the immunity we often talk about includes?

I won't mention non-specific immunity, such as skin barrier, because everyone knows it. When we talk about immunity, we are mainly talking about specific immunity. Specific immunity mainly includes two parts, immune molecules and immune cells.

Immune molecules mainly include antibodies, cell adhesion factors, complement, cytokines, etc.

Immune cells include lymphocytes and macrophages, which are often called white blood cells.

It can be seen that immunity itself is a part of the human body, so to improve immunity, we must essentially improve physical fitness itself.

Second, what factors will help immunity?

The best strategy is protein.

Protein is the basic component of cells and a structural substance. Moreover, the immune substance antibodies that everyone is familiar with are essentially proteins. Therefore, protein supplementation is one of the important ways to improve immunity. I believe everyone must be familiar with the need to supplement various proteins when sick. In tradition, there are also practices such as drinking various broths, which actually fits the strategy of protein supplementation unconsciously.

In fact, research has also confirmed the effect of protein supplementation itself on immunity[3]

For example, a comparison between starved rats and protein-supplemented rats showed a significant effect on the total serum IgM content, and other C3 and C4 also showed significant changes.

Third. So what kind of protein is best to supplement?

Generally speaking, a 100g steamed bread contains about 7g of protein, and rice contains even less, only about 2.6g of protein per 100g. This corresponds to a high carbohydrate content, which is also something many people who are trying to lose weight avoid. However, the protein content of 100ml of milk is about 3g[4].

Compared to eating 100g of solids, 100ml of liquid is easy for many people. After all, it is recommended that we drink about 1.6L of water daily. In addition, milk is easy to carry and store, and can be drunk at any time. Therefore, milk is a more suitable choice for protein supplementation. This is why some people call it white blood.

The "Dietary Guidelines for Residents" issued by my country's National Health and Family Planning Commission in 2016 also recommends that the daily intake of dairy products should be about 300g of liquid milk.

In fact, in recent years, with the improvement of economic and social levels, drinking milk has become a consensus among many people.

In general, the milk currently available on the market meets national standards, so it can be safely used as an important source of daily protein. Of course, protein supplementation is only one aspect, and a balanced diet is still the most important factor that I have repeatedly emphasized.

And, exercise more.

1 Zhang Yanling, Shou Shaowen, Zhang Peng, Chen Tie. Analysis of weather and climate characteristics during the SARS epidemic period[J]. Meteorology, 2004(02):46-49.

2 Kupferschmidt, Kai, and Jon Cohen. "Race to find COVID-19 treatments accelerates." (2020): 1412-1413.

3 Wang Xianyuan, Jin Hong, Xu Zhiqin, Nan Wenkao, Li Peibing, Gao Lanxing. Effects of protein-supplemented diet on immune function of starved rats[J]. Journal of Preventive Medicine of PLA, 2005(04):238-241.

4 GB-19301-2010 National Food Safety Standard Raw Milk